April 21 is Administrative Professionals Day 2010

Many people in office-type workplaces will take time to observe Administrative Professionals Day 2010 — and they should! If there’s a group of people that can easily go overworked, underpaid and under appreciated, it’s administrative professionals. The people who labor and toil to make sure the office runs smoothly certainly deserve a day of observance of some sort, and they technically get a whole week. Granted, many would take some more payday cash from a raise rather than cakes, cards and some silly day. They probably deserve it, too.

Administrative Professionals Day 2010 part of a week

Administrative Professionals Day 2010 occurs right in the middle of Administrative Professionals Week. In case you haven’t ever heard of the day, or week, it’s typically the third or fourth week in April. Administrative Professionals Day is the Wednesday of Administrative Professionals Week. (Why bother with a day when you already have a week?) A card, or pooling some fast cash for a gift showing appreciation would be par excellence.

When did this start?

Administrative Professionals Day got its start as National Secretary’s Day in the 1950s, thanks to a guy named Harry F. Klemfuss. According to his obituary in the New York Times, he felt that secretaries deserved more credit. He then joined forces with the National Secretaries Association and some other groups, successfully lobbying then-Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to have a Secretary’s Day declared. The National Secretaries Association later became the International Association of Administrative Professionals or IAAP, and Secretary’s Day became Administrative Professionals Day.

What does the IAAP say?

According to the IAAP website, there are almost 12 million people working in the US alone in the capacity of an administrative professional. (Outside of CEOs, and VPs and so forth – but they get enough credit as it is.) They certainly work hard, and deserve a day of appreciation. During the recession, they were some of the hardest hit workers. Many were laid off, downsized, or had to take on additional duties for the same or even lower pay. The Administrative Professionals Week theme for this year is Power of Commitment. Over the years, administrative professionals surely have shown it, and deserve Administrative Professionals Day 2010.